Ken Hanson Wins USA CRITS Finals

After 60 minutes of highly-animated racing, Jelly Belly presented by Kenda's Ken Hanson took the final bunch sprint to win the USA CRITS Finals at the TD Bank Mayor's Cup in Boston, MA.

Luke Keough (Mountain Khakis presented by SmartStop) finished an impressive third in the finals to secure his USA CRITS overall lead. Christian Helmig (Elbowz Racing) maintained his lead in the Sportsbase Online Lap Leader competition, while Keough wrapped up an impressive year by pulling on the Maxxis Best Young Rider jersey one last time.

How it unfolded

From the very start of the race, it was USA CRITS Championship Series contenders that would take responsibilty early and animate the racing, with Helmig, Clayton Barrows (AXA Equitable/Stan's NoTubes), and Clay Murfet (RideClean p/b PatentIt.com) each taking pulls at the front of the field.

An early and dangerous attack by Cuban strong-man Luis Amaran (Jamis Sutter Home) had siren bells going off in the peloton as BikeReg.com's Robin Carpenter was able to bridge the gap up to Amaran. The duo was chased down by Bobby Sweeting (Kenda/5 Hour Energy) and Jesse Anthony (Kelly Benefit Strategies/OptumHealth), and the four-man breakaway was able to get some daylight between themselves and the field, with the largest gap reaching 10 seconds. The break stayed away for seven more laps until they were brought back by the chasing peloton, just a few laps before the mid-race sprint.

The mid-race prime was not just for points this time, but for money as well, which had more riders sprinting for the line. Hanson picked up maximum points (and dollars), followed by Bissell's Daniel Holloway, Helmig, Barrows, and Bissell's Eric Young. The sprint brought Helmig within 10 points of overtaking Barrows in the USA CRITS overall.

With eight laps to go, Elbowz Racing's Heath Blackgrove launched a solo attack, and Anthony was able to bridge across two laps later. The two were reeled back in with one lap to go as Team Type 1's Dan Holt and Team Mountain Khakis p/b SmartStop put on the hard chase.

Coming around the final turn, it would be Hanson beating out the rest of the field to take the win. Holt sprinted for second, while Keough finished third. USA CRITS contender Barrows was edged out by Keough for 4th place, while Helmig finished 18th. For his continuous attacks and strong riding, Jesse Anthony was awarded the Most Aggressive Rider presented by Cyclingnews.com.

After nine races starting in Athens, Georgia and ending in Boston, Massachusetts, Keough finally was able to call himself USA CRITS Champion.